[Mb-civic] Karen Bushy response to my latest Blog

[Michael Butler]

Karen,
I respect your opinions. Don't agree with many. Let's refrain from personal
remarks,
Michael

 Oh, dear Michael, I expected about that - - - easy, easy comments to make,
with your fairly uneven sense of how a disaster can hope to be managed -
especially one of this proportion.  The total destruction covered 90,000
square miles - the size of Great Britain, or Minnesota.  You pick which
example you like best!The law that has been in place since early in the 19th
Century (Posse Commitatus) says the military cannot come into a state to do
law enforcement UNLESS THEY ARE INVITED BY THE STATE (read Governor). It
doesn't apply to the Coast Guard, which is why they got in there faster than
the other services.   In the most basic class offered on Emergency
Management and Disaster Mitigation, we are taught that ALL direct
responsibility for any emergency lies with the local jurisdiction - either
the Mayor or the County executive if it is an unincorporated area.  The
chain goes from the mayor to the State to the Feds. (If you are a
municipality, you advise your County, but they are not in the direct legal
chain.) The request for help can all happen in five minutes or less if
necessary, but that is how it is done, and no amount of foot-stamping or
potty-mouth comments by the incredibly inept Mayor of New Orleans or the
Governor who can't make up her mind will change that.  If Congress chooses
to change that, I'm guess there would have to be a Constitutional Change.The
fact of the matter is, Mr. Bush signed papers two days before the storm hit.
The military began to organize, but the Governor calls out the Guard for her
state!  There is no way around that!  They answer to her....period.  The
full-time military answers to the Commander-in-Chief, but they cannot come
into the state until they are asked by the governor.  That is just how it
is, and if she was paying attention, she would know that.  We're talking
"Governor 101".Now, the Mayor, who loves to alternate between whining and
his famous potty-mouth, should have known - in fact, he says he knew - that
he had thousands and thousands of people too poor, too ill, or with nowhere
to go - and they would be stuck in the City.  He had at his command in
excess of 500 government-owned buses, which he never moved.  They are still
in the parking lot where he left them, of course very wet parking lots now!
Yet, he screeched at the President for not sending enough buses the very
first day.  His buses weren't good enough?  Maybe he forgot he had them?
Whatever.Had he attended any classes or attempted to learn about Emergency
management, he would know that he is in charge of the disaster in his
jurisdiction and it is NOT a responsibility that can be dished off to
someone else.  It is part of the oath you take as mayor.  A good example is
the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City.  The mayor is the ultimate
decision-maker even when it is a federal facility in his city that is the
site of the tragedy.  Governor Keating of Oklahoma continues to call to mind
how well he worked with the mayor of OKC when that happened.  The mayor had
all the help he could use, but at the end of the day, the decisions were
his. Period.  Same thing in New York on 9/11.  Giuliani worked well with
Pataki, but it was Rudy's situation to be responsible for.  No one
else's.Both Mr. Nagin and Mrs. Blanco have made no attempt to hide the fact
that they don't like each other.  At first, they seemed more interested in
throwing spit-balls at one another than hunkering into their problem du
jour.  They both should have taken a cue from the former mayor of New
Orleans - Marc Morial (and like Daley, the son of a mayor).  Marc was SO
good at Emergency Management and Disaster Mititgation that when I was in
N.O. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors Summer Meetings about 4 years ago or
so, Morial taught one of the classes, and he was excellent!  I know then
that N.O. had a good Emergency Plan - we used it in class.  I don't know if
the current mayor has ever attended any Emergency Management classes - in a
recent article in the paper he was quoted as saying he "...is a self-made
millionaire and I don't believe in asking the government for anything."
Ooops.There for a few days, no one even knew where he was!  He had no press
conferences, he showed no leadership and he was holed up in the hotel next
door to the city hall.  Well, that's ok, I guess, if he felt safer there,
but how pathetic when they finally got the 200+ people out of that hotel, he
made sure that they went TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE - so much for fairness and
compassion for the downtrodden of his city who had been waiting for
uncounted hours to be evacuated from that terrible place!  Bet he didn't
expect that to be caught on camera!  Hah!  It happens.When the governor and
the mayor both got around to issuing their separate Emergency Declarations,
they didn't match and they were issued on separate days.  The police had no
backup support from their mayor.  Today - Monday - by the Police Chief's
admission, was their first organized press conference.  Common sense says he
should have had at least four PER DAY, so the residents and the staff
clearly understood what the 'leader' expected of them.His little potty-mouth
diatribe against the President on national television accomplished nothing
but to make the whole country understand he's not real bright.  I don't care
how much you don't like someone - if they have what you want, and you'd like
them to incline towards you, you don't get a whole lot by being nasty.  That
isn't even politics - that's just common sense, and the way he did it was
just plain stupid!  Of course, President Clinton was smart enough to not
side with that kind of idiocy.  Mrs. Blanco complains about the National
Guard but maybe doesn't even realize she is its Commander-in-Chief.  When
she was asked to sign the papers to federalize the Louisiana Guard, she
refused!  Well, dear governor, you can't have it both ways!  Pick one!What
is the old canard "Better to be thought a fool than speak your mind and
leave no doubt!" - Nagin needs to learn the job.This might all be anything
from funny to hopelessly infuriating, but the fact here is that the mayor
and the governor ought to #1. Learn their respective jobs#2. Understand
manners and protocol#3. Repair what they can with the feds.This time people
died who didn't have to die, because two people's egos couldn't get out of
the way to do the job right. I give all the credit in the world to Chicago's
Mayor Daley.  Even in all the years with a Republican governor here in
Illinois, he worked hand-in-glove with Springfield and with the local
suburban mayors.  We practiced together, we worked out plans together, we
lobbied Springfield and Washington together and at the end of the day, Daley
understands his role!  Were Hastert's comments inelegant? Yes - but more
than just Denny are asking what should be done - should we knowingly rebuild
below sea level, or should we acknowledge the rape of the wetlands,
understand that the Creator still makes water flow downhill and gravity
still works, 100% of the time.  Maybe higher ground in the nearby region
would make more sense.  Should he have said it when he did?  Probably not.
But it is a fair question.Now, as to your statement, re: the President not
flying to the area immediately, a little reflection on that would answer
your own question.  First of all, he publicly stated he wanted to go sooner,
and Governors Barber and Reilly recommended against it until security could
be better organized.  He bowed to the wishes of the two governors. The first
few days were NOT an opportune time for him to be there.  Had he gone, his
detractors would have excoriated him for that, too.  Why was he there
interfering with the rescue efforts.  That is a no-win situation.Could FEMA
and DHS do a better job?  Of course they can!  Should changes be made to
take into account a tragedy of this size?  Without question!  But until
those changes are made, those in charge better know the rules and play by
them, because that is all we have.In the meantime, the American spirit once
again comes to the surface, we learn to ignore those who are so bound up in
their own egos that they cannot be of help, and we cheer on the bus loads of
kids who willingly hopped on a bus and rode south from hundreds of different
churches and synagogs to be helpers - they will help these dear souls pull
through this unspeakable tragedy.  Faith-based America will make the
difference.  I know you don't like that, Michael, but I don't see Atheists
and Agnostics United out there helping.One thing those of us who work (or
worked) in Emergency Management know is that you will NEVER be judged as
having done a good job.  You can only do "less bad" - by definition, if you
were doing a 'good job', there wouldn't have been a disaster to react to.
So, you learn early on that you will be criticized down to a nubbin, and
that is part of the price you pay being in public office.  If your defense
is to blame others, that then becomes part of your ineptitude.  People
holler and scream and complain and whine and insult and rage and all those
things - sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of sadness or anger or
whatever the emotion or combination of emotions is at the time, but the fact
of the matter is, no one is in this business without the desire to help
other people and to do their very best.  Sometimes the combination of people
and situations makes the end of the game something no one hoped for, but to
ascribe less than good intentions to people who have given their life to
public service is unfortunate - unfortunate indeed.  And, the other
unfortunate part is that usually those that holler and insult the loudest
are the ones who have done nothing to help or to make it better - only to
villify and complain....and that's too bad.

--
Posted by Karen Bushy to Michael Butler's Blog
<http://www.michaelbutler.com/2005/09/fury-rage-sadness-embarrassed-ashamed.
html>  at 9/05/2005 07:10:41 PM